Kef R Meta Series Release

[juliangst]

I've seen some speakers with both active and passive crossovers in use.
The Magico M9 for example have a passive crossover on the mid range and tweeter and an active analogue external crossover for the bass drivers (which just costs $48,000).
Avantgarde horn speakers also used to have powered DSP bass drivers but their new models seem to be completly active.

 

[sigbergaudio]

FYI REL on their high end line s510 and s812 subwoofers claim to have low latency of 8ms (Tx is 16ms), which they say is so low because there is no DSP involved (and why they perform worse), but my Arendal 1723 s1, DSPed is claimed to have same 8ms delay and mops a floor with RELs for half price. RELs only work in hifi where people use amps with no subwoofer integration and need to use high level connection only (but KEFs for instance have high level inputs as well).

Our DSPed subs have 0.35ms delay. So that low latency argument doesn't hold.

Damn, I didn’t know that was even possible. But I’m pretty sure it’s much easier to do actively

Our active cardioid speakers actually achieve the cardioid pattern passively as well. So the speaker is active, but the caridioid pattern is not achieved through DSP. It can be done actively like with the Kii, but that's not necessarily easier and also add complexity with additional drivers and additional amp channels.

 

[mj30250]

We can argue all day long. But what I mentioned is the hi res what generally people would think of like 96khz, 192khz …

Well if the definition of high resolution audio includes a sampling rate higher than CD quality (which it does), 48kHz qualifies. Beyond that I think we're largely into the realm of marketing speak.

 

[Zvu]

Active or passive, if the woofer has to produce the same sound, it still has to get the same signal, producing same heat in both the cases!

You're completely right.

 

[Vacceo]

Passive crossover steals power, agreed. But the heat produced doesn’t normally have any

where did you read the impressions? There aren’t any reviews out yet in written form other than two. Both doesn’t mention it. Yes, there are some comments below that Czech videos saying this, but those are guess works from a YouTube video !!

Aut spinorama, aut nihil

 

[Nuyes]

Thread 'KEF R3 meta Measurements'
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kef-r3-meta-measurements.42219/

Enjoy it!

 

[Daka]

Thread 'KEF R3 meta Measurements'
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kef-r3-meta-measurements.42219/

Enjoy it!

Niiicee. As expected by me wider directivity in line what Reference meta did and what I could hear.
Totally different, better speaker to me.

 

[dogmamann]

Well if the definition of high resolution audio includes a sampling rate higher than CD quality (which it does), 48kHz qualifies. Beyond that I think we're largely into the realm of marketing speak.

I myself felt like high res, sounding smoother when switching between resolution many times with quboz, when I listened to my friends elac VELA bookshelf’s. The same wasn’t so much evident when l tried on a LS50(Orginal). Don’t know if it had anything to do with extended FR on the velas or not. I never heard Hi res, making a difference on that. It wasn’t so minuscule of a difference that to be doubtful on. But on my moondrop aria earphones, and sennheiser hd650 I cannot tell apart between them. Somehow both are always smooth. Anyway, most of the music I listen aren’t available in hi res, so at this point it’s something nice to have for me, but not essential.

 

[Absolute]

Phase anomalies ? Are you talking about time alignment at Z axis between drivers or phase anomalies of the individual transducers? Either way, you also can't do that with dsp actives. When you don't have physical time alignment, the best you can do (active or passive) is to time align the drivers at one particular, reference axis by adding delay. As you move off axis, time alignment will slowly deteriorate in actives too because relative distance of acoustic centers will change which requires different amount of delay.

I was actually thinking about frequency response wiggles of the two drivers that can't be EQ'd separately might give some strange off-axis effects when the strength relationship between them changes. Might place a little bit higher demands on driver choice, but all speakers should of course be well-constructed before fixing with EQ so probably a non-issue.

 

[emybaneesim]

Niiicee. As expected by me wider directivity in line what Reference meta did and what I could hear.
Totally different, better speaker to me.

Have only quickly reviewed the charts but fully agree from what I've seen so far. This is what I was hoping for - looks like you are getting closer to Ref 1 in performance than non-meta R3, which was the value proposition of the R series, prior to the Reference metas coming out. (Perhaps the biggest difference is now the bass, which should become a non-issue with a sub.)

Even though my own use case will be in a mixed set-up with some HT and Auro 3D, a slight widening in dispersion and the even smoother directional control is most welcome.

Well done Kef... but also well done @Nuyes for getting your white paper out before Kef!

 

[Descartes]

Popped in my dealer for a little bit today and saw the R meta on the floor. They already got R5, R7, and R11 meta ready to be demoed. I spent a little time with the R7 meta. They definitely look good. If I were to shop for something in the range, I would consider them. View attachment 265650

View attachment 265648View attachment 265649
View attachment 265647

Thank you for the pictures! Those MoFi bookshelves look narly!

 

[dogmamann]

I guess the hope for the people who wanted to upgrade the KEF r to r meta is now gone !! The shop has been down for some days now. There is no way to source the parts. Also, I realized it isn’t easy to remove the crossover from the r series. It’s sitting quite below the lower woofer in the case of floorstanders and it needs quite some effort to tighten it back to side walls. If it was on the rear wall it’s very easy. Also, need to remove all the wires before taking the croosver out as they don’t have extra long wires. For non starters, it’s a hard job with lot of potential to screw up!

 

[Descartes]

I guess the hope for the people who wanted to upgrade the KEF r to r meta is now gone !! The shop has been down for some days now. There is no way to source the parts. Also, I realized it isn’t easy to remove the crossover from the r series. It’s sitting quite below the lower woofer in the case of floorstanders and it needs quite some effort to tighten it back to side walls. If it was on the rear wall it’s very easy. Also, need to remove all the wires before taking the croosver out as they don’t have extra long wires. For non starters, it’s a hard job with lot of potential to screw up!

That sounds hazardous

 

[Daka]

Impressions of R7 meta:

 

[Descartes]

Impressions of R7 meta:

So subjective!

 

[dogmamann]

Impressions of R7 meta:

this kind of bullshit has no place here! You cannot judge the sound of a speaker by ear like this.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

this kind of bullshit has no place here! You cannot judge the sound of a speaker by ear like this.

This is funny, but is kind of correct.

For example if you pay atenttion to the video.... Where is the room acoustic treatment? i mean this guy is a dedicate audiophile in youtube, he should have sort of ''perfect'' condition in order to JUDGE WITH RESPONSABILITY an expensive speaker like that.





For stuff like this is because opinions doesn't matter to much, studios looks like very different to '' audiophiles '' rooms, mostly are full of vinyls or cds...


Is not like the review was bad or good, but he can easily listen '' room stuff '' from a speaker A and thinks it's the speaker, because the B speaker doesn't activate the room problem...

For example my right speaker have a ''room enhancement'', an ugly peak in 88hz. I thinked was the speaker character until i measured both speaker and find the problem in the right speaker, yeah that 88hz peak disappiar slower than the rest of the subbass, and because it's a subbass frecuency was hard to localizate a peak that low in HZ.



Im not saying you cannot judge a speaker listening, but you are always listening the interaction with the room.. so yeah you never listen the speaker alone.... unless you have a nice care of acoustics.

 

[dogmamann]

This is funny, but is kind of correct.

For example if you pay atenttion to the video.... Where is the room acoustic treatment? i mean this guy is a dedicate audiophile in youtube, he should have sort of ''perfect'' condition in order to JUDGE WITH RESPONSABILITY an expensive speaker like that.





For stuff like this is because opinions doesn't matter to much, studios looks like very different to '' audiophiles '' rooms, mostly are full of vinyls or cds...


Is not like the review was bad or good, but he can easily listen '' room stuff '' from a speaker A and thinks it's the speaker, because the B speaker doesn't activate the room problem...

For example my right speaker have a ''room enhancement'', an ugly peak in 88hz. I thinked was the speaker character until i measured both speaker and find the problem in the right speaker, yeah that 88hz peak disappiar slower than the rest of the subbass, and because it's a subbass frecuency was hard to localizate a peak that low in HZ.



Im not saying you cannot judge a speaker listening, but you are always listening the interaction with the room.. so yeah you never listen the speaker alone.... unless you have a nice care of acoustics.

Also the problem is sadly his age means he is no longer having good high frequency hearing as he used to have at his younger age.

 

[dogmamann]

I mean this guy is a dedicate audiophile in youtube, he should have sort of ''perfect'' condition in order to JUDGE WITH RESPONSABILITY an expensive speaker like that.
.

He JUDGES More expensive speakers in that room. Sad that KEF as a engineering company still needs subjective reviews to sell their products. Audiosciencereview should be the only one place they should really care.

 

[Mnyb]

Observation R series still has those ridiculous biwiring terminals with built in jumpers ?

These serve no purpose (as passive biwiring is pointless and only designed to sell speaker cables ) and only add to the production cost and will possible corode and malfunction in the future.

Just remove these and have normal singelwire terminals Kef can pocket the savings themself and keep the price level.

More on topic looking forward to a real spinorama of these speakers . imo they seems to have improved an already very good product.